New Orleans Saints

May 3, 2012

The New Orleans Saints football team has managed to out-do Peyton Manning as the off season’s top story. It all started with the breaking news of the bounty program, in which defensive coordinator Greg Williams, was encouraging players to injure opposing players by putting up a pot of money for the person who took their opponent out of the game. This offense resulted in some heavy punishment for the Saints. Greg Williams, who is now the defensive coordinator for the St. Louis Rams, is suspended indefinitely, Sean Peyton, head coach of the Saints, is suspended for one season, and the general manager, Mickey Loomis, is suspended for 8 games.

Then, on top of the bounty program, ESPN reported that GM Micky Loomis, from 2002-2004 had a wire tap in his personal box at the stadium, that allowed him to listen in on the conversations of the opposing team’s coaches. This has not been proven true yet, but if it is, it is not only breaking and NFL rule, but it could be breaking federal laws as well.

Looking at these situations from a PR perspective, this could go either very good, or very bad. Obviously, these situations could get the fans to turn on the team out of disappointment. This would be a disaster for the Saints PR team. It would be very hard to persuade fans to come back after what happened. On the flip side, however, and the more likely outcome in my opinion, is that Saints fans will become even more loyal to the organization. While the rest of the league, and other teams’ fans come down on the Saints, I believe that Saints fans will stand and defend their team. I have no evidence or anything to make me think this will happen, but I just have a feeling that Saints fans will stick by their team, after all their team has done for them since the Katrina disaster.